Ky. Supreme Court set to hear arguments on abortion ban Tuesday

FRANKFORT, Ky. (WKYT) - Tuesday morning, the Kentucky Supreme Court will hear arguments for and against the state-wide abortion ban. With hours until the hearing, we spoke with key players on both sides of the issue. But the ruling will ultimately come down to legal arguments about whether the right to an abortion is in the state constitution.

“We believe within that right to privacy and the right to self-determination, to determine what’s best for your own future and your own body is also the right to access abortion,” said ACLU of Kentucky Communications Manager, Samuel Crankshaw.

: On November 8th, voters declined to specifically ban abortion in the state constitution. Abortion rights supporters, like Crankshaw, hope the justices take the rejection of Amendment 2 into consideration when hearing the case. The Amendment would have added language to the state constitution, as Attorney General Daniel Cameron says, stating that it would not protect or require the funding of abortion.

“It left the legal path open for us to continue challenging these laws in court,” Crankshaw said. “This is just the next step in a long fight to restore abortion access in Kentucky.”

Abortion opponents, like Addia Wuchner with Kentucky Right to Life, believe the amendment’s defeat should not have any impact on the justices’ decision regarding an abortion ban.

“From the judicial side of it, the justices should be ruling on the Constitutionality. Not on what’s popular,” said Kentucky Right to Life Executive Director, Addia Wuchner.

Right now, because of the trigger law passed in 2019, abortions are mostly on hold in the state. In August, the court ruled to keep the ban in place while the case is reviewed, acknowledging they wanted to await the outcome of the amendment vote.

“We’re there because we have stated from the very beginning, there’s not a right, an explicit right, to an abortion as the constitution stands right now. And that’s what the Attorney General was also defending,” Wuchner said.

The hearing is set for Tuesday at 10 am. No timeline has been given for the ruling.

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